Post-Victorian Feminist Mythology

Victorian Literature and the underlying cultural assumptions are the core mythology behind current Western Feminist orthodoxy.

Most people who've read much in English Literature are familiar with the Victorian Era, 1837-1901. Queen Victoria did more to shape our American culture today than is easily imagined. Whole books have been written drawing out the ways in which her reign covered a period when all sorts of things came together which changed the world in so many different ways. If you are aware of scholarly movements behind things like Protestant Theology, you realize some of the worst heresies we still suffer came from this period: modern religious liberalism, the denial of Scripture as the unique record of God's revelation, the social work religious movement, Marxist and related theologies, Progressivism (interpreting theology), Zionist Dispensationalism, Protestant fundamentalism, etc. You may be aware of pernicious influences in other fields of study, not least being political theories.

It wasn't all bad, but the point here is how it collated and solidified a massive layer of social mythology regarding human sexuality. I won't get bogged down here in details, but it's the logical culmination of feudalism, the Reformation and basic Germanic pagan mythology. The business of the white knight and Mariolatry gave us the two primary sex types, both so completely false that it's hard to know where to start.

Thus, while we know Queen Victoria's isolation in childhood and her mother's strict legalistic morality are strong influences on her reign, it's hard to blame her for anything more than keeping the ball rolling in the same direction it was already going, when it would have been the perfect time to stop it and get real. The problem was the socially enforced pretense. What began as proper and advisable became an enforced orthodoxy. Victorian culture tacitly acknowledged that it was all fake, but insisted it was necessary to patronize the masses. Now we are stuck with a schizophrenic world of social orthodoxy that no one can maintain, but it becomes the excuse for execrable oppression.

Some of the things which came to a head during her reign:

1. The extravagant protection and smothering control of childhood: It's not that prior generations didn't love their children, but this was extreme, unique in human history. As Western materialism came to a head, the natural human capacity for being otherworldly and hoping for a better future in Paradise (however imagined) was sublimated into vicariously living your paradise through your children. Instead of afterlife above, it was afterlife in the kids. There was no longer any moral investment in the divine, but all one's energy was in creating a better world for one's progeny. The primary mark of holiness was embracing prissy middle class virtues, making it the whole point of religion and religious zeal.

2. The moral dominance of women: Men had to strive mightily to become a white knight and maintain it. Women were presumed born virtuous as the Mother of God. Sacred virginity became the symbol of all things good, great and powerful. Women weren't supposed to like sex, only tolerate it. Their mission in life was to tame their bad boys, including the ones they married. Whatever was a feminine concern was the Word of God, because women were the soul of civilization.

3. Extension of the nest: The model of a woman's home became the blueprint for all the world at large. Domestic order and prosperity of the sort found in middle class proper homes became the blueprint for national politics and international relations. Meanwhile, the extended family home was broken up, and the nuclear family became the only model for home life. It's almost shocking how utterly destroyed was the instinct to cling to your roots. To move far away from parents and other kin became a dire necessity of human existence. Thus, instead of your local paternal village council of elder kinsman, your entire nation became your "village" and the national government got directly involved in your personal affairs. Government took the place of family elders.

It's already obvious how this destroyed human political behavior, but what applies to society at large surely sets the stage for all human interactions, including personal romance. The Game Theory of Socio-sexuality* is the obvious recovery of sanity in peeling away the layers of this Victorian mythology, and we can only hope it lays bare the obvious mistakes in politics, as well. Even in theology it helps, because it exposes the hideous excuses for questioning the old order, not of the feudal structure, but of the more ancient assumptions about reality.

Consider this: Setting aside for the moment the contents of revelation, if your fundamental assumptions about reality make room for divine revelation, it's hard to describe what a difference it makes compared to a reality organized purely on human perception and logic. The Victorian Era crystallized a resolve to discount and ignore received wisdom from any divine source, not simply the God of the Bible. Whether you agree with that epistemology or not, what we have now is the inevitable result of that tectonic shift in how we approach the task of conceptualizing reality. Could we visit a parallel universe where the various cultural inputs were changed, I seriously doubt the fundamental assumptions of feminist mythology would be so very different.

Take away the fear of divinity, and you will have a feminist political and social system of some sort. The basic wiring of men and women are that different.

*Game Theory of Socio-sexuality -- This is the label used by Vox Day to indicate a body of social research shared among many bloggers and writers. In essence, it's rather like computer role-playing games. Never mind what it seems, to find out how the game actually works, the player experiments and tests various different possibilities to discover the underlying algorithm. Thus, Vox and others have actually tested the common social mythology about women, particularly what women say about themselves, and found it false. Instead, there is a body of understanding that seems rather consistent with the majority of women, forming a model of Western feminine sexual response. The research and results are often referred to by the shorter label of "Game." While some of it echoes the older "pick-up artist" manipulative psychology, it has been expanded into a much bigger social theory that contradicts most of our common social mythology as whole.

Addenda: Vox offers a short list of what all this mythology has gotten us today. I paraphrase:

Women reject accountability for their words and actions.

Women are more demanding and difficult to family and freinds than with complete strangers.

Women whine about men, then chase the most available alphas, who are jerks.

In response to an offline question, perhaps I should make it more obvious about one thing. When young fellows are coming of age, most are self-neutered by swallowing the feminist social propaganda. They become deltas and gammas, etc. In order to maintain any manhood, if they don't actually understand the truth on some level, they end up having to rebel against society. Typically that means taking the only path open -- being a jerk, a predator, etc. Thus, the majority of fellows who arrive at adulthood with their manhood intact are very likely bad boys of one stripe or another.

Women demand white knights, honestly believe they want them, yet hate them. Women chase alphas because that's what their wiring responds to, and most of the alphas they encounter are jerks. Most women have no idea why they do this, even deny doing it. This is the Post-Victorian Feminist woman.

By Ed Hurst
29 March 2012

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